Sunday, June 3, 2012

Books: White Lioness

When a husband reports his missing wife, Kurt Wallander immediately senses a tragedy. But little does he know that the investigation has a bigger impact on the world events. The time is almost an year from where the last novel in the series ended. This is also the time when Mandela and de Klerk are working together to take an internally conflicted South Africa into the new millennium and usher in an era of peace and integration.

The backdrop of the Wallander series becomes bigger with this book. In order to bring the reader engaged, Henning Mankell departs from his usual style of first person narrative adopted in the earlier two books. Although the major part of the book and the plot is revealed using Wallander viewpoint, the novel skips to provide the perspectives of other players. This helps in creating suspense and also filling the blanks which is unknown to Wallander. The blanks I refer to will never be discovered by Wallander. So it is better to keep the reader informed instead of leaving them hanging after the book has finished. If I have to concise it in one sentence, this is the book where Mankell throws away the style of Le Carre and adopts the style of Robert Ludlum. Thankfully, the drama is still like Le Carre.

I was amazed at how Mankell shows an action in one continent can affect the judgement and also actions in another continent. It also critiques Sweden and his open door policy towards strangers. The open door policy with lack of protocols to deal with the influx might Sweden into chaos. It may or may not be relevant today. Anyway, that is a question which a politically savvy person can answer. Most of the twists and turns in the novel arises out of carelessness from various players. It is something everyone of us may end up doing if roles were reversed. So it is also a call to be vigilant in the changing times.

If you are a mystery fan, this is for you. If you are interested in world affairs, this is for you too. The views may be yours. On the other hand, the views may be diametrically opposite from yours. It is always good to affirm your beliefs and also to know the counter-arguments.